WIRED MALTA (formerly known as Wired Temples): Coping with the influx

Addressing the European Parliament, Maltese President Edward Fenech Adami on Wednesday said Malta needed more European Union funds to cope with the influx of asylum seekers seeking to enter the bloc through Malta. The Maltese Governments policy on detention was criticised by the President of the European Parliament. Report by Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

..'Europe cannot leave countries of first arrival for illegal immigrants to deal with the huge problem all on their own,' Adami told members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The EU must overhaul its immigration policy, Adami demanded, adding that after a recent visit on Malta, European lawmakers promised to try and change current EU law.

'We have some 2,000 people on Malta who want to go to other countries in Europe and for them the detention period of 18 months is simply too long,' Adami said, referring to the time that asylum seekers are detained in Malta under local legislation. But unless the EU provides Malta with more financial help, the period illegal immigrants are kept in detention centres can not be shortened, Adami said.

He added that detaining refugees was also being done by the Maltese authorities to ensure that people did not escape to Italy which Adami said was 'always pointing the finger at us.' European Parliament President Josep Borrell said at a joint news conference with Adami that the EU would help Malta to tackle the flood of asylum seekers but added that the Maltese government must shorten the detention period. 'In other EU countries illegal immigrants are held for just two weeks...we in Europe have common values and we also need common procedures,' Borrell underlined.

EU money must be made available to help countries facing the problem of illegal immigration, Borrell said, adding that the parliament will push for more help from the bloc. The Strasbourg parliament on Thursday is expected to vote on a resolution calling for all detention centres on Malta to be closed. After a recent trip to Malta, a delegation of Euro MPs described the centres as 'horrible, intolerable and frightening.'...